I tried offerring gift cards this holiday season and sent out approx. 100 letters to current and past cuustomers as well as nearly 150 emails to different contacts. As of yet I have not had 1 response. Anybody out there try this and did it work?

All Star Lawn Care

Steve

12-18-2008, 09:25 AM

Hi Steve,

Welcome to our forum. Can you tell us what your gift card consisted of? What did you send out? What was the offer etc?

If you want, scan in an image.

allstarlawns

12-18-2008, 09:31 AM

Hi Steve,

Welcome to our forum. Can you tell us what your gift card consisted of? What did you send out? What was the offer etc?

If you want, scan in an image.

I used 8.5 x 11 Christmas border paper and here's what I offered.

The holidays are here and itís that time of year when you want your gift to be perfect!

Long after all the shopping is done, the days get longer, and the weather nicer, youíll be remembered for your thoughtfulness!

Itís the gift thatís great for teachers, pastors, bosses, and relatives!

Oh what I mean was, were you trying to sell $10 and $25 dollar gift cards? I wasn't exactly sure what the offer meant.

allstarlawns

12-18-2008, 10:19 AM

Oh what I mean was, were you trying to sell $10 and $25 dollar gift cards? I wasn't exactly sure what the offer meant.

Trying to sell dollar amount but was offering a $10 discount if they bought $50 and a $25 discount if they bought $100 worth.

Steve

12-18-2008, 10:27 AM

Ah ok so a $50 gift card for $40 and a $100 gift card for $75.

Well something interesting to consider is if you send out 100 letters you can potentially hope for a 1% or so response rate. And that is just a response. Then a lower conversion rate, which is how many actually buy.

Try playing around with the Marketing Return On Investment Calculator.
http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?p=43299#post43299

That will give you the ability to come up with some potential returns.

I think in this case there could be a couple of things that went wrong. First the offer might just not be grabbing them. Second off, you may need to send out a lot more direct mail pieces. Maybe 1000+ to get an idea if it would work or not.

You could also try to sweeten the deal. Maybe send out another 100 letters and say this is your last chance before Christmas to jump on this offer. In fact if you act before 12/20 I will give you two gift cards for the price of one. And maybe that will get them to jump on the offer. Then when you go to these new customers homes, you will have a great opportunity to sell them on a season's worth of lawn care or any other upsell you can think of.

What's your view on that?

allstarlawns

12-18-2008, 10:31 AM

Ah ok so a $50 gift card for $40 and a $100 gift card for $75.

Well something interesting to consider is if you send out 100 letters you can potentially hope for a 1% or so response rate. And that is just a response. Then a lower conversion rate, which is how many actually buy.

Try playing around with the Marketing Return On Investment Calculator.
http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?p=43299#post43299

That will give you the ability to come up with some potential returns.

I think in this case there could be a couple of things that went wrong. First the offer might just not be grabbing them. Second off, you may need to send out a lot more direct mail pieces. Maybe 1000+ to get an idea if it would work or not.

You could also try to sweeten the deal. Maybe send out another 100 letters and say this is your last chance before Christmas to jump on this offer. In fact if you act before 12/20 I will give you two gift cards for the price of one. And maybe that will get them to jump on the offer. Then when you go to these new customers homes, you will have a great opportunity to sell them on a season's worth of lawn care or any other upsell you can think of.

What's your view on that?

Great idea! Thanks for al your help. I turned my PT business to FT in March of this year and just trying whatever I can to get things moving for 2009.

Steve

12-18-2008, 11:16 AM

What other things have you been doing to market your business?

allstarlawns

12-18-2008, 12:07 PM

What other things have you been doing to market your business?

Door hangers basically. I tried the $10 bill on your website and handed them out to several people in a networking group I'm involved with but still have not gotten a bite. Did an ad in the business directory this fall and did get a couple leaf blowing jobs but just enough to pay for the ad.

Steve

12-18-2008, 12:54 PM

Have you worked your neighborhood and handed out flyers or business cards? If you were to walk down your block, how many of your neighbors know you are in the lawn care business? Everyone of them should know ideally. Then work out farther from that center.

Are you using craigslist?

allstarlawns

12-18-2008, 02:27 PM

Have you worked your neighborhood and handed out flyers or business cards? If you were to walk down your block, how many of your neighbors know you are in the lawn care business? Everyone of them should know ideally. Then work out farther from that center.

Are you using craigslist?

I started it today. Have you heard if that's a good place to be noticed? Btw, I have walked my area as well as many other area's between April and Ugust of this year. I put out roughly 2500 flyers. I got 8-9 customers out of that. For the spring, I want to revamp my flyer, use the newspaper, Craigslist as well as my website www.triadallstarlawn.com.

Steve

12-18-2008, 10:24 PM

Well the great thing about craigslist is it's free, so you can experiment a lot without having to pay any money.

Very nice website too.

Do you have your friends and family handing out business cards too for you to their friends and co-workers?